Called for a wake up for 7am, it didn't come through till 7:30, I was up and showered and listening to CNN. Olympic Sledding Crew Member died in practice. The guy who invented the Frisbee died at the age of 90. We went to breakfast at the hotel buffet. We had thick french toast and potatoes, mango juice or pineapple juice. The rest of the dishes were local and I choose not to try them. Our guide got a beautiful little cup of milk and coffee- Latte? We headed out to the fish market and Hippo Boat Ride. We each had to pay 20 birr to get into the gate. There were UGLY birds there to who men threw fish too so they would fly around and we could take pictures. Of course the men wanted money for their services. We didn't get to go to the Fish Market because Mahi said "It smells". I think it would have been interesting to see, but oh well. We walked on through the trees and along a path, there were lots of monkeys around begging. A little girl followed us with a dog. The dog was hers or so she said and she had another one at home. B or G asked if they had other pets, she said a pig, our guide said she thought that was impossible. She wanted money of course, I gave her suckers. Our guides chased her away 2 or 3 times. Men tried to sell us Hippo Tooth Scoops. We walked on to the shore where the boats were tied. Abraham negotiated and negotiated and negotiated until he felt we got a fair price for the boat ride. We all had to have life jackets, even though the water wasn't much more than waist deep in most places. We passed a new hotel going up on the waters edge. There were 10 of us on the boat including the captain and cabin boy, 2 guides, the 3 of us, Terri, Emily and Elliott. Almost as soon as we left the dock, if that is what you can call it. G noticed that there was a leak in the boat. We didn't know that the lake was fairly shallow at the time. She made a motion to B and we all laughed. Emily said that she had heard it was very common. The cabin boy came up and stuffed something in the hole. Like the boy in the dyke. At times the Captain rowed and other times there was a motor. There continued to be leeks. Now the boy was bailing with a flat sided container. Lake Hawasa is a very large lake, full of reeds along the edges, this is what the Hippos eat. There were men fishing in reed boats, like Thor Heyerdahl, only small. The water wasn't very deep in places so we ran aground and the Captain had to get out and push. We saw many Hippos, snorting, and swimming under the water, then mouths open wide. We weren't any closer than 50 yards. I was totally soaked going out because we were hitting the waves that were coming in. Another leek under G's seat. The cabin boy propped up one of the seat cushions to help me from getting any wetter. It really was to late already, lucky it was my whole pants or I might have had some "splainin" to do. I think the water could have been up to our ankles if that young man hadn't kept bailing. In fact at one time both the boy and the Captain were bailing. We headed back in to shore. They let part of us out at a very rocky piece of ground. Native youngsters were jumping in and splashing and having a great time, reminded me of Lake Story. We had to be very careful, one at a time alternating sides of the boat. They then moved the boat to a flat part of the beach to let the rest of the group out. Terri said,"Now I really feel like an Ethiopian Princess.There were white tailed black monkeys in the trees, they were very big and Gretchen had one on her shoulder as a profile picture for a while. They had large basket type nests in the trees. Men brought buckets of nuts for us to give to them. Bill tried to pay for some but the guy didn't think it was enough and wouldn't accept. Ok, sorry for you. Elliott did so well on the water, she flirted with Abraham. At the beach I saw a gerbil, I guess there are lots here. We tried to describe squirrels to them, it's hard to tell someone about a squirrel unless they can see one.
Last parting visual picture of what we saw before lunch. Along the side of the road in a filthy ditch was a dead donkey, a local dog was enjoying his lunch. This was in the middle of town just a few feet away from the gate of an enclosed compound, someones home or maybe a guest house.
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